Landscaping Your Yard

Create a lovely landscaped yard that will welcome visitors to the front of your home and be a wonderful retreat in the backyard. You can
do this quite easily with some advance planning and a little budgeting. Unless
you are in a hurry to spruce up the yard for a wedding or other formal
occasion, you can complete this project on weekends over the course of the
year. Cut the expense considerably by doing the garden prep and planting
yourself. Labor is the most expensive part of any project.

Designing the Landscape

Sketch what you want to do with each part of the yard. For
example, in the front yard you may want the front walkway lined with flowers;
bushes in front of the windows; a small hedge along the property line to frame
flower gardens or an expanse of green lawn. You might design the backyard with
tall hedges for privacy, a barbecue pit, a kitchen vegetable garden and a
cutting-flower garden with a birdbath. Look through gardening books for
inspiration. Start compiling a list of what you want.

Make note of problem areas with the yard such as bare spots
under trees, areas that are always shaded or gullies that collect water when it
rains. You may also want to attach trellises to the sunny side of the house to
cool it down.

Decide what statues or birdbaths you would enjoy having in
the garden and add them to your list. You can mix garden styles by separating
them with hedges. Some garden styles that may interest you are a rock garden
with a waterfall, a wildflower garden, an informal garden with a circle or
hexagon shape, or a woodland look with ornamental grasses.

Decide where you will place the compost bin. The average
size yard only needs a small bin. Today's compost bins are well constructed and
do not release odors that would bother you or the neighbors.

Preparing and Planting

Pick up around the yard including rocks, large sticks and
anything else that would interfere with planting.

Go through the entire yard with a metal thatch rake and pull
out all of the dead growth and matted areas. The metal rakes work better than
the plastic ones.

Add dirt to level any gullies in the yard. If your yard has
several dips in the landscape, then a truckload of soil may be cheaper than
buying individual bags.

Test your soil so you will know which fertilizer to buy. You
may need different fertilizers for the lawn, flowers, vegetables and dwarf
fruit trees. Your local garden center can offer guidance for the particular
plants and trees that you will be growing. If possible, buy fertilizers that
are a combination of fast-release and slow-release. This will give your yard an
immediate boost in nutrients from the fast-release, and then a steady supply of
nutrients throughout the season from the slow-release part of the fertilizer.
By the end of the season, you should have enough compost that you will not need
to buy fertilizer very often.

Prepare the ground for your bushes and flowerbeds. A
rototiller makes this work much easier than digging with a shovel. Go
down about one foot to encourage deep root growth. (You can rent rototillers
from tool rental places and sometimes from garden centers.)

Mix the fertilizer or compost into the garden beds and
wherever you will be planting hedges or bushes. Do not fertilize the lawn yet
since some fertilizers will prevent grass seed from sprouting.

Plant the hedges and bushes to frame the yard and house.

Build the barbecue pit, waterfall and rock garden, if there
will be any. Create your walkway with bricks or paving stones.

Attach the trellises to the sunny side of the house, or
wherever you want additional privacy. Plant the vines for the trellises.

Plant your flowerbeds, ornamental grasses and other greenery
according to their mature height. Place the tall plants in the back of the
garden so they will not block sunlight from their shorter cousins.

Some species of ferns do very well in shady areas under
trees. They will reproduce and eventually cover the bare tree roots in addition
to looking pretty around the tree trunk.

Buy a bag of mixed grass seed that is native to your part of
the country. Mixed varieties of seed will help to keep your lawn looking lush
throughout the year. This is because some varieties have good tolerance to heat
while other varieties have natural immunity to pests or disease. In addition, different
types of grass have different life spans so your yard will not die out within a
short span of time.

Toss the seed by hand over the entire lawn. Immediately
cover the lawn with sheets that are held in place with rocks. Birds like the
taste of grass seed. Wait until the seedlings are more than one inch tall and
then fertilize the lawn.

Keep everything watered and watch your garden grow as you
lay in the hammock with steaks on the barbecue grill.